Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Russia will let comatose dissident be treated in Europe
MOSCOW — Russian doctors gave a dissident who is in a coma after a suspected poisoning permission to be transferred abroad for medical treatment, in a sudden reversal Friday that came after more than 24 hours of wrangling over Alexei Navalny’s condition and treatment.
Navalny, a 44-year-old politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, was admitted to an intensive care unit in the Siberian city of Omsk on Thursday. His supporters believe that tea he drank in an airport while waiting for a flight was laced with poison — and that the Kremlin is behind both his illness and the delay in transferring him to a top German hospital.
It would not be the first time a prominent, outspoken Russian was targeted in such a way — or the first time the Kremlin was accused of being behind it.
Russian doctors say there is no evidence of poisoning, and the Kremlin denied that authorities tried to prevent the transfer.
Even after German specialists arrived on a plane equipped with advanced medical equipment Friday morning at his family’s behest, Navalny’s physicians said he was too unstable to move.
Navalny’s supporters denounced that as a ploy by authorities to stall until any poison in his system would no longer be traceable. The medical team relented only after a charity that had organized the medevac plane revealed that the German doctors examined the politician and said he was fit to be transported.
According to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, the flight to Berlin is scheduled for Saturday morning.
The Kremlin denied resistance to the transfer was political. However, the reversal came as international pressure on Russia’s leadership mounted.
The most prominent member of Russia’s opposition, Navalny campaigned to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election but was barred from running.
Last year, Navalny was rushed to a hospital from jail — where he was serving a sentence on charges of violating protest regulations. His team also suspected poisoning then. Doctors said he had a severe allergic attack and sent him back to detention the following day.